(Book 2 in If I Could series)
"What do you want, Lily!?" he yelled, his patience on the verge of snapping. "You keep telling me you hate me but clearly you don't, you want me but you won't accept it either. You're stubborn and crazy and I- just tell...
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Sometimes, some things in life didn’t make sense; like why the fuck I had a dumbass brother who had no spine, or why I had thought it’d be good enough to come to this party, knowing full well I’d be seeing her at one point.
However, the thing that didn’t make sense at all and was weird all at the same time was the effect this woman had on me. I could feel her plump lips parting as she gasped softly, her wrist stiff in my arm and my mouth ghosting over her ear, finding amusement in her reaction to me.
My plan had been simple as fuck. I had come to know that the Archers were building one of their headquarters for the UK in London, and that for its promotion, were also looking for a project big enough to garner attention. Archer & Co. was an extremely successful publishing company and while my company, Jones Publishing house was just as much huge and as celebrated across our country, my recent fuck-up had blasted us.
We had been working on an app for months now and we’d only announced the existence of this app two days ago. But then, shit had happened. Within the next twelve hours of the announcement, our database had been hacked and the progress, including the coding of our app had been leaked. The media latched onto this news like a moth to a flame and it had been a shitshow since then.
The board was mad at me since we had already taken up investors and had run a prototype check with other companies, gotten their reviews and had spent another fortune working on the setbacks, the costs and the aesthetics of the app. And now, because of the leak, all was in vain and the investors were raged, so much that they wanted me off the CEO position.
And I couldn’t let them do that, dammit. That position was always meant to be mine and just this one fuck up in our security system was not going to take it away from me. So I promised the investors I would pay them back from my own pocket; as if it would be rather sad bidding some tens of millions from my billion dollar estate. Insert a massive eye roll there.
And as long as the company was concerned, I wouldn’t let this loss discourage my employees or lead my board to doubt my capabilities. So, when I heard the news about Kyst Archer, the CEO of Archer’s & Co.’s company losing their long-time manufacturing contract with Bernard Black due to personal reasons, as their saviour, I stepped up. Albeit with a stipulation, of course.
“What the fuck are you on about?” the little wildfire spat, her eyes narrowed to slits in anger. Her voice was raspy, her breathing fast as I kept her caged against my chest, my hand wrapped around the wrist of her hand that she’d used to poke me in the chest.
“I’m not going away,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. Goosebumps dotted her skin at the closeness and despite being about three inches shorter than me in her highest high heels, she managed to look down at me through her nose, trying to make me filthy about herself. Funny, because I already was filthy when it came to her. Really fucking filthy. “And as I said, there’s no escaping anymore.” With my other hand, I tucked a strand of her soft, silky, brown hair behind her ear, my voice a light breeze as I said, “Not from me, at least.”
